To all you cats lamenting how good or bad this show is...blow it out your arse...Some like brussel sprouts others dont...what makes you qualified to determine what my ears enjoy? You go on tour? That's a given..most of us were on tour..In fact if you listened to cassettes and traded..the bus was only firing up,you had to tour..Once the infection took hold,there was no stopping...So let cats(and kittens) listen and make their own conclusions...If you're really here diggin on the guys,you should be stoked with ALL they left on the table...I doubt seriously,given the amount of snobbery,you couldve lasted as long as they did...it was not just a party for them..they showed up to show us a really good time..I miss the days of a high bias cassette...oh the anticipation...and the only reviewers,that shared their opinions,did it face to face.....

I sang a little while and then flew on.

I've never understood people that think that 84/85 were good years for the band. 85 is the shit and muck of dead shows, worst of the worst, arguably worse than 94/95 at times. Check out the cryptical from 6/24/85 for proof. Most brutal shit I've ever heard in my life

You're probably right, this is not as good as '84....which is not as good as '79.... which is not as good as '74... which is not as good as '69...

BUT

listen to Jerry just melt the solos and his gossamer buttress notes behind the vocals in Queen Jane. Utterly majestic.

Comparing the Dead shows across the years is rather pointless, I think. As Joni Mitchell said, "Nobody ever asked Van Gogh to paint "Stary Night" again". Meaning, I think, that music like a painting is a unique expression of the moment and is best left at that. I was fortunate to see a lot of shows at steady frequency between 1978 and 1995 and there are so many ways that one era or phase was either like or different from another. This includes every aspect from the parking lot to the ticket window to the sound system to the song selection and even extends to the people on stage. The bottom line was that, you know, the music played the band, once in while you got shone the light in the strangest of places if you looked at it right, the band could hear our voice and indeed there was always another blue light cheap hotel that had yet but would stay reside within. and oh yea - nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.
The 89 Fall Tour definitely was rich and deep. This show to me is four stars since it really doesn't leap out at me. I was there and I do remember it being great, still riding the Hampton wave. It's a shame that the Blow Away doesn't work here - it's bloated and Brent forgets half the words. But check out the earlier ones on tour, like 10/19 at the Byrne - beautiful!!! The dude meant it - it will all blow away. Too bad that Brent had more songs about sadness and loss than survival and redemption. But artistically, the full blown Blow Away was one of his peaks. Oh yeah, he meant it. Birdsong here is sweet of course but not especially intense. All in all, it's a well played show with nice song selection and the type of top qualifty sound Charlie Miller is known for. Thank you, Mr. Charlie!! And while I began this post by shying away from comparing eras, I have to say that personally I greatly prefer '89-91 to '84-86 because Garcia was healthy of body again. The man could always stroke the strings no matter what his condition, but to hear his voice full bodied and strong remains tremendously uplifting for me. We all live through our low moments and bottoming out experiences along the way and lifting off again with Jerry post-coma was pretty sweet. Like I said, Brent couldn't come up with a vibe like "I Will Survive" that somehow got Jerry over the top. I love them both and learn from them everyday!

Of COURSE this wasn't The Dead from '84, (or whatever year you hold dear...)

But this WAS the new and invigorated Dead... Jerry having fun with his Midi...Bobby being...Well, "Bobby" This was an entirely new creation of the GD ! It didn't last long - by '92 things had gone back to shit... But, for a glorious 2 and half years we had "our Dead" back.

Anyone would be foolish to dismiss the tapes from Oct. '89 thru Spring of '92... There's some mighty fine playing there...

This tour is so highly overrated it makes me nauseous. I saw Hampton and Philly all 5 night, Weir's bday and the last show in Miami, which was my last out of town show after seeing my first in '83. Folks this is '89 - not '83 or '85. These "jams" were so short, they had the gay, thin midi sound. Lesh was not nearly the presence he was with the original Modulus. These shows were a perfect microcosm of the whole late-'80's - some nice moments, even some brilliant moments, but overall the shows left a lot to be desired. Garcia was not the same. His voice was a bit better but his playing was not. And we all loved him for getting back on the road - I mean the guy had to relearn how to play for crying out loud, of course there;s gonna be a drop. But he could still bring it and we loved them for staying on the road. We just missed the special days and raw power of the early/mid-'80s's. That Miami Dark Star was pretty lame compared to the one at the Greek in '84 in my view. This is a good show for the year but to give it 4 or 5 stars is simply not realistic and is misleading potential newcomers from the real good stuff.

Can the reviewers start qualifying whether or not they have seen shows? And if so when? It's pretty hard to take someone seriously who never saw the band or was a Touch head and never saw them pre-coma or pre-In the Dark.

I haven't listened to the shows on this tour that I missed yet (all of NJ, all but the first night of the Spectrum), but if this is "an off night", I'm not hearing it. Sure, maybe it's not as consistently great as some of the other shows on this tour, but apart from a vocally sloppy Blow Away, I don't think anything they played on this night was below average. If they'd played this show on one of their less celebrated tours, I think it would be more highly regarded. That said, the space jams are what makes this show a good one. Another great Birdsong, and the post-Franklin's Jam make this show worth having. Everything else (except Blow Away, which is a poor version) is at least "solid". It's a testament to the greatness of this tour that this show would be considered an off night.

"Nice Space Jam Following Franklin's"
- Charlie Miller

No kidding. Indications of darkness to come during those Miami shows. Great show.

A sweet second set from a justifiably celebrated tour. Listened to this one with no expectations and was impressed by how comfortable Jerry seemed with the old Wolf. Dust off those rusty strings indeed. First set is so-so, but everything from Samson on smokes! Unusual H>S>F placement works very well. Slipknot jam and the Franklin's jam into drums/space are highlights. Miracle and Stella also shine.

Solid show, loved the uniqueness of HSF>drums and yes there were a few rough spots (eg Blow Away)

BUT
but
but i posted this review to highlight the

Birdsong

this 15 min version just SOARS

89 was a great year for this song and this one exceeds most if not all of them!

I keep coming back and revising my review on this one ,and now with this Upgrade I must add a bit more .First off at this show I was exhausted from the Philly and Jersey shows ,and also had a real bad cold .So My actual at show experience was mediocre at best and ,for years I never even got the tapes or wanted them.Now its 2000 something and archive is up and running strong and I gave this one a chance .At first I kinda dismissed it as an off nite or whatever ,but the more I listened I heard the magic in it. Kind of like looking at a stereo-gram ..where you have to focus your eyes just right to see the intended image. I now hear the mystical sound scape imagery of this show.At first it sounded like an ultra clean almost sterile soundboard with lots of musical flubs.The more I listen I hear in set one as much as set two a glimpse into the other side of the mystical primordial almost hard to comprehend and explain on a human level thing that is ..THE GRATEFUL DEAD.

This one is beyond whether they were tired or in bad moods ....The music is playing the band....

also... Jerry played the "Wolf" guitar this whole tour.He Played that guitar in late'73 ,during the 1974 "Wall of Sound" shows and late '77 to early'79(including the Egypt '78 shows).Was it just coincidence this was his axe of choice during the fall '89 tour with all the revivals of old favorite tunes ? I thought it was cool ,and sounds cool too.....